Lock cars at night

We're not living in Hooterville anymore.

Speak for yourself!

My dad (who, with my mom, locks the doors even when they're home) likes to remind us that when he was a kid they only locked the door on Sundays. If they didn't, his Uncle June (short for Junior) would come over and turn all the furniture upside down while they were at church.

Mama Scooterbug not only locks the doors on us, she locks the screen doors. Her theory is that criminals are lazy so it might still dissuade them - our theory is that it is annoying (and it hurts to bounce off them) and that is excessive since there is a large dog who barks at US, let alone the criminal who walks down the long driveway to get there.

We have alarms so that if someone opens the screen doors, the alarm goes off before the intruder even has a chance to try to break in. I think we have overdone our security, but after the home invasion, that's the way we roll.

We always turn on the alarm at night and/or if we go upstairs. And we keep guns in lock boxes in key locations in the house. I have signs around the house that say, "Owner has gun and will shoot intruders." We also have motion alarms all over the property. We get false alarms from deer quite frequently, but a false alarm is better than no alarm. We just look out and hope to see the deer. If there were an intruder around, the deer would scoot.

We have alarms so that if someone opens the screen doors, the alarm goes off before the intruder even has a chance to try to break in. I think we have overdone our security, but after the home invasion, that's the way we roll.

We always turn on the alarm at night and/or if we go upstairs. And we keep guns in lock boxes in key locations in the house. I have signs around the house that say, "Owner has gun and will shoot intruders." We also have motion alarms all over the property. We get false alarms from deer quite frequently, but a false alarm is better than no alarm. We just look out and hope to see the deer. If there were an intruder around, the deer would scoot.

Cool art. :funn:

My cousin had a huge sign on their property that said, "You Are Under Visual Surveillance!"

Not video, but visual! They had a few break-ins.....sleepy little town in S. GA. After posting the sign, no more break-ins.

Cool art. :funn:

My cousin had a huge sign on their property that said, "You Are Under Visual Surveillance!"

Not video, but visual! They had a few break-ins.....sleepy little town in S. GA. After posting the sign, no more break-ins.

Video. ;-) I won't divulge all of our security secrets.

I want to place a video cam near my mailbox. Postman is spooky and scared to death of 'predator bugs and snakes.' So, he keeps shoving my jasmine off my mailbox and I am about to go postal on him. He denies doing it!

Locking doors is something most people know to do. Or at least know they are failing to do. No need to broadcast there is money in an unlocked car in a particular town and street. It's kind of like an invitation to come prowl isn't it?

I want to place a video cam near my mailbox. Postman is spooky and scared to death of 'predator bugs and snakes.' So, he keeps shoving my jasmine off my mailbox and I am about to go postal on him. He denies doing it!

predator bugs???

No invitation issued

Locking doors is something most people know to do. Or at least know they are failing to do. No need to broadcast there is money in an unlocked car in a particular town and street. It's kind of like an invitation to come prowl isn't it?

I didn't realize I was BROADCASTING Kurt...I thought and I meant to warn others that there were folks in the Grayton area prowling and looking for unlocked cars on Pine Street. Which by the way, had other car looters about this same time last year here on Pine. Sometimes living in Paradise we forget that there are Others out there who are ready to prey on us when we make foolish mistakes. AND leaving a car unlocked was foolish and careless on our part. I also discovered via my "BROADCAST' that there were several others that had their cars invaded...Defuniak Street and Magnolia were also visited...so it appears that there were quite a few of us that got hit. Perhaps my warning may have reminded others who may have become careless to LOCK their cars...at least I hope so. The money missing was change and a few dollars...it wasn't my life savings...I for one would want to know if my town, or my street might have a problem with unlocked cars and petty thieves. I really don't think I extended an invitation to come prowl.

The other morning I went to getin my truck to go to work and I don't keep my truck unlocked, but when I went up to it the door was craked open. I saw that someone had went thru my glove box, nothing missing that I know of. Seems to be going around.

Thanks all...I forgot to close my garage door.

When I first moved to SoWal, almost 14 years ago (1996), my wife and I lived in a micro-small apartment behind our store in Ruskin Place, Seaside and felt extremely safe compared to the city we left. We heard stories of how everyone left their doors unlocked and we were excited to join the club. Back then the local community was much smaller and everyone knew everyone. But even back then, we had two bikes stolen from deep, under a carport. I'm sad to say that from that point on, I have locked all doors. I don't mean to be a downer and I'm not paranoid, and I do think that we live in a very safe place but there's no reason to press your luck.
Not 6 months ago, my wife's purse was casually taken out of her car when it was parked at Bentley's (the old 3Thirty1) off of Chat Holley. She had to run into the building for a second and just didn't think to lock it. Luckily for her, a security camera had just been installed and caught the criminal in the act. Our great sheriff's department had the burglars caught within the hour and the purse and contents returned. We were told that they were living in a house on Chat Holley that a was a junk pile of stolen backpacks, purses and bags.

Thieves know we get a whole new crop of folks each week with stuff to steal. Many of our visitors come from "gated upscale communities" or live out in the country where they habitually leave their cars unlocked with their stuff inside (money, iPods, cameras, laptops). These visitors, because they pay big bucks for a beach house, falsely assume that our little beach community is "safe and secure" too. What they fail to realize is that they're living among a bunch of strangers who change out every week..."strangers" wandering in and out of vacation rental subdivisions and condo parking lots is no cause for alarm. Thieves just brush past cars, trying the handles to see if one opens (apparently many do) and grab the loot and go.

We are in a serious recession with unemployment on the rise and I expect petty theft will rise too. Personally, I'd like to thank the folks who "make it easy" for these thieves by leaving their stuff unsecured...without them, the thieves might become more aggressive.

Perhaps the parents of the child who was caught doing this last year should hold that child by their ankles and shake. The child has clearly learned not to take traceable items like bags, phones, iPods, etc.

I didn't realize I was BROADCASTING Kurt...I thought and I meant to warn others that there were folks in the Grayton area prowling and looking for unlocked cars on Pine Street. Which by the way, had other car looters about this same time last year here on Pine. Sometimes living in Paradise we forget that there are Others out there who are ready to prey on us when we make foolish mistakes. AND leaving a car unlocked was foolish and careless on our part. I also discovered via my "BROADCAST' that there were several others that had their cars invaded...Defuniak Street and Magnolia were also visited...so it appears that there were quite a few of us that got hit. Perhaps my warning may have reminded others who may have become careless to LOCK their cars...at least I hope so. The money missing was change and a few dollars...it wasn't my life savings...I for one would want to know if my town, or my street might have a problem with unlocked cars and petty thieves. I really don't think I extended an invitation to come prowl.

I understand and meant no offense. I doubt burglars are reading this forum.

Crime is up in a bad economy. You should see the code name for bandits tagged by the Police in the new township of Sandy Springs.

Not to blame this on teenagers, but certainly, folks must realize that "carhopping" is a common teenage activity. (Not a good one, and you would be surprised at just who all has been implicated at times.) Two summers ago, a pack was broken up that had frequently targeted Baytowne, Grand Blvd, Mack Bayou and Grayton. There was at least one incident in Seaside last summer (perp got caught), and back in March/April (I forget the date now), ShallowsSquirt left his backpack in the back of the truck while spending the night at a friend's house on Morrison Street and by 9:00 p.m., the contents were all up and down Bay Drive. The backpack showed up the next afternoon, hung on a Bay Drive mailbox. Interestingly, the perp didn't take the digital camera that was in there; they got to the dirty gym socks and stopped.

It would take gonads to steal stuff from our house as being shot on sight is a distinct possibility, but it has happened. One day a couple of years ago, when we were all at work (save for ShallowsSquirt, who saw the event but didn't want to confront the bandit) an aluminum jonboat was taken from our front yard. ShallowsFuzz put out a large sign asking the thief to bring the boat back. It came home a couple of days later, with a new coat of paint and watersealed (thanks, thiefs).

I hate it too, but we lock our doors...

We always lock our cars and have had no problem with anything stolen from our property . However , cars have been broken into at the Public access area here in Inlet Beach .

I guess you can't be too careful these days .

i'm bad about leaving mine unlocked....i've always been a little too trusting i guess.

i'm bad about leaving mine unlocked....i've always been a little too trusting i guess.

When you find the doors, you should lock them.

Our minister of music in high school liked to drive to Atlanta and leave the windows down and the keys in the seat. He couldn't get anyone to steal his car, though.

There's trusting/small town and then there's giftwrapping it for a criminal.

I might leave my car windows open/cracked and the car locked while I'm in a store or at the beach, or the car completely unlocked in a quiet neighborhood when I am just hopping out to take a picture or something for a few minutes, but I also don't keep anything worth stealing in my dusty old car.

An unlocked car w/ visible cash during the busiest part of the season in a high traffic area is quite different from us being relaxed because we live in a small town w/ low crime.

When you find the doors, you should lock them.

Our minister of music in high school liked to drive to Atlanta and leave the windows down and the keys in the seat. He couldn't get anyone to steal his car, though.

That is too funny! One of our neighbors has a beat up old minivan and one night she mistakenly left the keys IN the ignition and left it out on the curb to the side of the house...woke up the next morning and the car was still there. Indianapolis thieves have high standards I suppose.

Found credit cards

About two years ago hubby accidentally left the car unlocked at Borago. The next morning when we stopped at Tom Thumb, his gas cards and sunglasses were missing from the console. We figured that it was kids because after calling the card companies, we were told that the gas cards had not been used.

This morning a neighbor called and said that someone found the gas cards in a vacant lot on our street. So they were stolen from our own driveway!

Note to self: lock car at home as well as away.

Bump.

Lock your car doors, day and night.

so good to see you are still posting.

Is a car really considered "broken into" if it is unlocked?

Chalk up the money taken as tuition to the School of Hard Knocks.

In this economy, if you don't want it stolen...lock it up. We're no longer the Mayberry RFD you've come to know and love over the past few years.

That post was more than a year old - no Shelley here now.